


Barefoot

by tinyinkspots



Series: Brave New Worlds [1]
Category: Mass Effect - All Media Types, Mass Effect: Andromeda
Genre: Character Study, F/M, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-09
Updated: 2019-06-09
Packaged: 2020-04-23 08:17:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,056
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19147120
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tinyinkspots/pseuds/tinyinkspots
Summary: She stood along the shore of one of the lakes west of Podromos.  The water rippled in the faint breeze, and the hot air caressed her cheeks.  Some type of fragrant scrub brush scented the air, and Sara closed her eyes to take a second to breathe it all in.Never in her wildest dreams had she imagined a place like Eos, or imagined getting to experience the planet quite like this.  Into the stillness, she opened her private comm link.  “SAM, is the water safe to swim in, now that the vault’s been activated?”[In which Ryder takes some time for herself on Eos.]





	Barefoot

The sand was smooth beneath her feet, and the mere feel of it against her skin sent a shiver of happiness and disbelief up her spine.

This, right here, was why she signed up for the Initiative. Eos could be their new home —humanity’s— and she had a front row seat to making it all possible. The Vault had been activated, and now Eos was more promising than she’d first thought. Podromos, the new Initiative outpost, was even flourishing nicely, despite Addison bogging everything down in paperwork.

After a day of traipsing around the surface in the Nomad, scouting out new landmarks and wiping out Kett, Sara was happy to sneak out of the Tempest for some alone time. She stood along the shore of one of the lakes west of Podromos. The water rippled in the faint breeze, and the hot air caressed her cheeks. Some type of fragrant scrub brush scented the air, and Sara closed her eyes to take a second to breathe it all in.

Never in her wildest dreams had she imagined a place like Eos, or imagined getting to experience the planet quite like this. Into the stillness, she opened her private comm link. “SAM, is the water safe to swim in, now that the vault’s been activated?”

It was a brief pause before SAM said, “There are no hostile life signs detected, Pathfinder. However, it is not advisable to swim in the water until further tests can verify safe interactions between local microbial fauna and human physiology.”

Her fingers were already moving to unseal the clasps of her bodysuit. “Concern noted, SAM.” New experiences and discoveries always came with some risks. With a soft susurrus, she shucked the rest of her undersuit off, careful to place it next to her boots, before moving towards the water.

The heat of the day had kept the water warm for her, and a sigh snaked from her lips as the liquid lapped against her skin. It was almost like walking into a bathtub, and the combination of something both so nostalgic and familiar in a completely alien environ made the hair on her arms rise. She trailed her fingers across the water’s surface as she waded in, up to her hips now; soft eddies of sand swirled around her toes as she probed around the occasional stone. 

The soft breeze stirred her hair, and her skin pebbled. There was no shame for her in this, wading into a strange pool on a planet that could become their new home completely naked. Ryder had never been one to shy from the human experience, and coming to Andromeda —with all of its challenges and dangers— would not keep her from wringing out the most she could get out of life. 

A deeper part of her needed to know that this was real. All of it. Coming to Andromeda. The disaster of Habitat 7. Eos. Losing her dad, almost losing Scott. Becoming the Pathfinder.

She needed to connect with something in a tangible way. She needed an ounce of space for herself—away from the Nexus and being Pathfinder and all of the responsibility—

The water was an embrace around her as she plunged herself under the surface, and for a moment, as she hugged her knees and drifted in the warm darkness, she was a child again. Safe in a warm and watery cocoon, the problems of tomorrow for someone else. Not her. In the murkiness near the bottom of the lake, she existed as Sara. Just Sara.

When her lungs were bursting for oxygen, she unfolded and kicked up for the surface. Breaking back into the night, reality shuddering back into her lungs as she sucked down air—it almost felt like a rebirth. In that instant she felt like humanity reformed, crystalized, distilled. Indomitable. They had conquered one world; they could do it again. Andromeda would become home. She wouldn’t allow any other alternative; her father certainly wouldn’t’ve. 

The universe was reflected all around her in miniature as she floated on her back, limbs spread wide. She was infinite through drifting, held in perfect suspension by her breath and the water’s buoyancy— it felt slightly thicker than Earth’s water, but she didn’t want to think about that now. A smile split her lips as she pictured herself in this moment—Sara Ryder, swimming through a sky full of stars.

She had no idea of how much time had passed before SAM interrupted her weightless solitude. “Pathfinder, members of the crew are beginning to wake up for their stations. I would advise returning to the Tempest to preserve your modesty.”

She snorted. “Didn’t figure you as the chivalrous type, SAM.” He made a comment on human standards of modesty and nakedness, and all the while she swam back to shore she couldn’t help but laugh at the ridiculous image of SAM defending her feminine honor. For whatever it mattered in a different galaxy. 

Joking aside, though: as much as she was liking her crew, she wasn’t keen on them catching her in the buff.

Her cheeks heated as she emerged, dripping in the moonlight, as the thought came unbidden: But what about Liam? It was hard to not notice him, and not just because he was almost obnoxiously positive and helpful. Also not just because the sum total of known people in her life now consisted of less than 20. She almost forcibly pushed the accompanying thoughts away as she pulled on her undersuit, not taking the time to fully let the air kiss her skin dry. Comfortable in her skin she may be, but the thought of especially Liam catching her like this was mortifying, blossoming attraction be damned. 

Not bothering with shoving her sandy feet into her boots, she carried them and her bodysuit back to the ramp, pausing for a moment as she looked back out over the desert. The lake’s surface had stilled from her disturbance, returned to its mirror surface studded with stars and galactic swirls. The air was still scented with local flora and fauna, almost pungent, but now mingled lightly with damp earth. She took a deep breath, taking it in with eyes wide open. 

She knew it was completely her imagination, but underneath the strange foreignness of Eos, she thought she detected something like home.

**Author's Note:**

> Recently fired up Andromeda again, and have caught the writing bug again. This has been sitting in my WIPs since 2017 from a bunch of Inktober prompts, and finally got around to finishing it. :')


End file.
